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Felipe’s Corner: Take it as a Lesson Wenger!

Maddy’s Note: A difficult- to – take night at the Camp Nou is covered by our ‘Foreign Correspondent’ and good mate Felipe. He’s got some tough questions to ask of our board and manager. Please note these are his views and do not Reflect BigFourZa’s views. Indeed, I will be having a vociferous discussion with him arguing various points he has made. Of course, if you don’t agree with him either, leave a comment and let him know.

I don’t doubt your love for Arsenal. But I do doubt that anyone in this world is as pissed as me. I have been rehearsing this article inside my head since the final whistle, and I confess I have failed to decide what to say. I have mixed feelings about this loss.

Well, we all knew we wouldn’t win the Champions League anyway. We also knew this team was overachieving since that loss at Porto, the moment after which we started an impressive unbeaten run, scoring amazing goals and winning games at the last minute of the match.

But we always knew too, that, as I said above, that was overachievement. I do think our team is very good, but throughout the season we missed countless players and their losses were to blame for our lack of consistency. The most important loss was Robin van Persie, a player that had been our most important player at the moment he was tackled by Giorgio Chiellini. He was our top scorer and someone around whom our game was built. After that, our season disrupted, we lost countless points trying to figure who should fit his boots, given Bendtner also got injured, at the same time. And after that the season was gone. Cesc limped off the pitch some times, too, as well as Gallas, Diaby, Song (who played the Africa Cup of Nations), Arshavin and Rosicky & Walcott, the duo that have spent more time in the medical room than on the pitch since they were signed.

To sum up; the injured key players cost us our season. Still, somehow, we managed to be where we are right now, finding forces somewhere and winning some games in a way the pundits still can’t believe. Again; that’s overachievement. And that’s why I have been praising these lads for a long time and that’s why I did promise myself I wouldn’t be bored in case we were knocked out by Barcelona, especially after such inspirational comeback at the Emirates last Wednesday. But being trashed and humiliated in such a crucial game, yet again, is too much for me, I’m sorry.

Losing to Barcelona reminded me one fact; we were trashed by Man United and by Chelsea. So why would we beat Barcelona? I know the answer is ‘because we, being fans, think with our hearts’, but the thing is, why can’t this team win big games? What happens to us when it comes to play the teams against which the victory really matter? What’s the fucking point of beating the Wolves if we aren’t able to beat the top teams? The reason is our injuries, yes, but as this is something we can’t control, I will lay the blame not on the depth of our squad, but on the quality of our reserves.

I would be clapping the boys had we lost 2-1, 1-0. But being humiliated the way we were hurts me. Once again we played like a small team. We respected them too much. We never looked hungry whatsoever. Why on earth did Wenger start Silvestre, for god’s sake? He hasn’t been playing for ages and then the boss decides to bench the legendary Campbell – who would be my captain today, given his enthusiasm and leadership while warming up – for a bloody Manc. And even when we found that lucky goal through Bendtner, we couldn’t keep the victory even for 5 minutes as Mikael gave away the ball to Messi, allowing him to score quickly enough to not to let his teammates to feel any pressure. And then the game was killed: the crowd got behind them and we were thrashed.

Now returning to the main point: our reserves aren’t good enough. And please allow me say that Rosicky has been hopeless. All he did today was spoil a vital chance that came from a cross by Walcott, a chance that if converted would have changed the game. Plus, we started with Silvestre replacing Gallas – which is laughable – and now I will have to remind you of something: Clichy and Sagna both pocketed Bojan and Pedro. Diaby kept Xavi quiet and Denilson, poor lad, had the task of marking who? Yes, the one who won the game by himself. That is a proof of how inefficient a holding midfielder he is. Since his arrival I’ve been saying he’s a decent playmaker, someone who bombs forward and scores from outside the box. But not a holding midfielder. He has been shite playing this role and we’ve seen that several times and still, Wenger decided to play him. Why? Because he had no options. Song is quality, a world-class monster. But when we had Denilson and Eastmond to replace him, Barcelona had Yaya Toure on the bench. When we had Eduardo, they had Henry. And on and on.

Our lack of belief against bigger teams is killing me. I just can’t stand the way we play against them. Either our first team or a mixed team, we look shite playing big games and that can be easily solved: Wenger has to swallow his pride and finally buy some quality. I repeat, our first team is good and everything we need is some cover, why is that so difficult? Even my grandmother knows we’re the unluckiest team ever when it comes to injuries, so why on earth Wenger doesn’t buy more players?

By not buying quality, experienced player to strengthen our squad for massive situations like that, Wenger allows the players to start wondering whether they should leave Arsenal. And that’s why we’ve turned ourselves into a selling club. Why is it so difficult to understand that in order to keep the good promising stars we have we must start winning things? The kids are good when we mix them with experienced players, just like Barcelona do; they play Pedro, but he had Ibrahimovic alongside them. They play Busquets, but he has Xavi and Iniesta to cover him.

Everything is connected. Our lack of winning mentality against the big teams, the selling-club thing and that pathetic and humiliating performance we put today are all linked to the fact we must buy quality. Look at Chelsea, look at Man City. We’re bigger than both of them in terms of history and everything, so could you imagine how good we would be in case we start spending our fortune?

I don’t know what happens inside the Emirates, but Gazidis, Kroenke and Wenger should all change. Arsenal is not a profit machine. Arsenal is one of the most victorious football clubs in history and we should be given more respect. We, fans that spend big money, that live for this club, and even some of the players that run their socks off, just like Clichy did brilliantly well today, by the way.

We can’t have a better opponent to start a revolution: I know nothing can be done to save our season (only if Chelsea start dropping points crazily, which I doubt), but if there’s only one game we Gooners want to win, this is the White Hart Lane game, and poor performances like today’s will not be tolerated, playing the reserves or not, as everyone at Arsenal knows.

I trust Arsene Wenger blindly. He’s everything we need in order to return Arsenal to the place we belong. We have great fans. We have a great structure. We have a brilliant stadium. We are one of the richest clubs in the world, so, please, take this as a lesson and dazzle us this summer.

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30 Responses

you are damn right about the mix of players. if you recall, for fabregas to become what he is today,he mixed with the vieiras, the henrys, the bergkamps of those days and he learnt his trade.
even when vieira and bergkamp were no more, he still had henry and the like.
once the invincibles were all “sold off”, it all turned out to be an arsenal of sorts.

i agree that the wenger should swallow his pride and think about selling off “quantity” and buying quality.

Wenger is both blind and stupid. Period. He refused to see what all others saw, (even Arshavin said we need to buy),. ..Wenger turned back on his own words; said he’ll buy in January, then later said he won’t. All you hear from him are excuses after excuses after excuses…”we are very young team, … still under 23 years…still maturing/ or not matured yet,… (Gimme a break! Who really cares about ages??? You mean Barca dont have young players too??)….BLAH BLAH BLAH,.. we have potential, potential, POTENTIAL!!!!… forever POTENTIAL!!! Wenger should really go and run a nursery instead.

The reason why I am devastated by the loss is exactly because of my love for this club. In other words: if you really care about Arsenal, how cannot you be frustrared after such humiliating loss?

I was shocked by Maddy’s introduction. All my article says is that we need get back to the winning ways urgently. I give my opinions on how it could be made, but it is insane not to admit something is very wrong with us when it comes to big games.

I love Arsenal FC and that is why it hurts me that much watching my team being spanked and humiliated in a massive Champions League game.

There is no one better than Wenger for us, I never denied that. Everything he needs is to spend the available money we know we have. Only then we will be able to fight for titles and, most importantly, to win the games that really count.

Have to agree with Maddy, the game showed that our reserves were not good enough against a virtually full strength Barca..but that’s hardly a surprise.

For the game itself, we missed 6 people who would have started this game had they been present. Which means rather than keep buying players mindlessly we need to sort out the bigger problem – why do arsenal suffer considerably more injuries than other teams? Part of the answer lies in our playing style itself, part of it is Wenger’s fault i suppose. but he can hardly correct that by just buying more expensive players can he.

And although we were beaten by a much better team on another day with a little luck we could have won. All 3 of barca’s first half goals had hint of fortuitousness about them, with deflections going kindly for barca. And at 3-1, Bendtner hit the post with a rather good header and who knows what we could have done with 3-2. Not to mention referees who chose to be overtly kind to Barca throughout the 2 legs.

With considerably minimum expenditure Arsenal have managed to challenge for the title and have been only knocked out of the UCL by the single greatest team and footballer on this planet at this moment.

Well said…but i think we need to back the manager and the team in tough times… we can call all the strategies of wenger as crazy but believe me guys , this is the worst which can happen to arsenal FC… we will be the best team in the world very soon…. wenger is not a crazy egoistic man.. he is on the verge of greatness…. he will prove all the moaning gunners how much more he knows about football than any other manager… the mancs and chelshits will suffer a lot in the hands of these kids… just wait and watch….